Stereotypes are Based in Facts?

Only a DRAFT!

May change/be updated - still in progress - may still contain inaccuracies

Do stereotypes get their basis in facts? If not where do they start? A certain provable fact or observation? Do they start similar to how rumors start? Do people make them up out of the blue or derive them from some shred of truth?

I originally thought that all stereotypes have a shred of truth behind them. And mustn't they in order for people to continue to spread them? People won't believe just anything. They may be over representing the problem, but there must be some way it could be true, mustn't there be?

Demographics

I am not saying that all stereotypes are true. Oh, no, I know that. Stereotypes also are not always bad. They can be a valuable tool to classify and making assumptions about people. In marketing, for example, they are called demographics. Demographics stereotype a population into certain categories in order to determine how likely the people are to purchase a particular good. Not everyone will purchase the good, and not everyone conforms to the demographics. They are generalizations.

For example: Lower-income black men are more inclined to purchase tattoos, then whites. That's not to say whites don't purchase tattoos, they do, just not as much.

Ethnicity:

White, non-Hispanic 13.8%
Black, non-Hispanic 19.2%
Hispanic 11.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander 12.3%
Other 12.5%

For example this data from [1] or [2] via [3]

And the difference is not as much as you might think. But according to that report there is a difference.

Nor do you need to be low income. That, however, seems to follow the trends. Also if you observe the neighborhoods where tattoo parlors are likely to be found. Now there are some in the middle of white suburbs, like one near me, just the majority are found there. Tattooing a function of culture; in some American sub-cultures it is more acceptable.

Conform

Just because you are labeled with a particular stereotype or in a certain demographic does not mean that you need to stick to them! Feel free to be different!

However sometimes people are pressured to live up to labels put upon them. However is this society forcing them or the people they are around?